National Population Commission (NPC) has called on Non-Governmental and Civil Society Organisations involved in Child Rights advocacy to partner in ensuring the registration of all street children in Nigeria.
Deputy Director Planning, Department of Population Management of the Commission, Ms. Margret Edison made this known on a Radio Nigeria programme, “Street Children”.
According to her, through the collaboration, the commission would be able to develop mechanisms that would effectively capture peculiar information of each street child for registration as Nigerian citizens.
“we will be looking forward to having them come over to us and let us have a conversation on how to capture these street children and give them an identity as Nigerians because without them being registered, we will not be able to meet the SDGs”, she explained.
Another guest on the programme and Director General, Public Defender and Citizens Rights Commission, Mr. Zakari Abdullahi advised state governments where Almajirai practices are prevalent to direct Mallams to request for documents before accepting any child into their custody.
On addressing cases of Migrants and Refugee children on the street, Team Leader, Almajiri Child Rights Initiative, Mallam Mohammed Kiyana advocated the need to strengthen child protection systems especially at community and local government levels and improve surveillance at the nation’s borders to prevent them from coming in.
“If we have a strong social protect system within the community that can identify them, we can still be able to take them off the streets and return them and most importantly, prosecute those who are harbouring them,”
RN